


Early Childhood Alchemy

by sbuggbot



Category: SteamWorld Quest (Video Game)
Genre: Don't copy to another site, Gen, Kid Fic, Magic Oops, Pastfic, Pre Canon, Spell Failure, Voltbot Armilly AU, childhood mishaps, sorta; it isn’t really the focus
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-08
Updated: 2019-10-08
Packaged: 2020-11-27 22:51:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,120
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20956232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sbuggbot/pseuds/sbuggbot
Summary: There’s almost always a chance of a spell misfire when an alchemist tries a spell they lack the experience for, but the results are even more dramatic when the user is a small child.





	Early Childhood Alchemy

**Author's Note:**

> Working title for this fic: Can't Magic; Too Baby
> 
> Another Pre-Quest kidfic, featuring a small Armilly and Copernica getting into Shenanagins. Takes place after and references "A Beginning", which you can read [here.](https://archiveofourown.org/works/18923851)

Copernica shifted her hold on the big book in her arms. “Over here!” she called to her friend as she ran towards the clearing. She stopped running and clumsily pushed up her big glasses while trying not to drop the book. She bounced in place. “Come on!”

“I’m coming!” Armilly shouted back. “Don’t wanna get lost.”

“I’ve been here before, so I know the way back home,” Copernica said. “This is a good place to do alchemy.”

“Do we have to play alchemist again?” Armilly thought of the various “potions” they’d make out of leaves and twigs and whatever else they could find outside. It was fun, but they had been playing that game a lot lately. “You never let me try the ingredients…”

“You never eat the lab supplies, it isn’t safe,” Copernica said sternly. The serious look on her face didn’t stick around for long; soon she was practically beaming with excitement. “Besides, I wanna try _ real _ alchemy today, that’s why I’ve got Papa’s book!”

Copernica knelt down on the ground, carefully set the spellbook down, and opened it up to a random page. Not finding what she was looking for there, she began flipping through the book--sometimes forwards, sometimes backwards.

“How do you know what page to use?” Armilly asked.

“It says so right there.” She stopped flipping through the pages and pointed to a passage. “Practical Appli...Applications of Common Mushrooms,” she read carefully--you could hear her sounding out the words. “I’m in the wrong part of the book,” she said to herself, “I want the part about spells and casting...”

Armilly squinted at the page, not understanding any of the words written on it. She couldn’t read yet. There were a few drawings of different mushrooms, though. Copernica was already beginning to look in another section of the book for what she wanted. “You know how?” Armilly asked.

“Well, not really… Nobody wants to teach me how, so I’m gonna figure it out by myself!” Copernica said. “I’ve done it before already, don’t you remember?”

Armilly remembered; it was only a few months ago, after all, and the first time they met. Copernica successfully froze some damp towels that had gotten too warm to be of any use to a worryingly-fevered Armilly. 

“I did ice last time, I wanna try something else first…” She mumbled to herself. At last, Copernica found a page that she wanted. “Oooh, fire!”

Ideally, she would have held the open book while she tried, but once again she had to face the limitation that was her small child body. She needed at least one of her hands free to cast, and it took both of her hands to keep ahold of the spellbook. Having the book on the ground near her foot would have to do.

Copernica gave her hand such a focused look that it probably could have burned a hole in her it, but instead, a little ball of fire appeared just above her palm. It startled both of them; Armilly jumped back like a startled deer while Copernica was so startled by the sensation that her focus broke and the fire disappeared.

Copernica recovered from the small spook rather quickly. Armilly’s eyes were still wide and kept flitting between Copernica’s hand and her face in concern.

Realizing what Armilly was probably thinking, she said, “It didn’t hurt, it just felt kinda weird.” She studied her hand. No marks or anything, just a lingering weird feeling. “Not a bad weird, though.”

That was a good enough answer for Armilly and she relaxed. “Gonna do it again?”

Copernica’s expression lit up. “Yeah, that was cool! You bet I’m doing it again.”

Trying something slightly different, this time Copernica made some more balls of fire magic and soon figured out how to make little wisps of fire practically dance around her. Armilly was _ enchanted. _ Copernica’s display wasn’t that special compared to what experienced alchemists could do, but this was _ her friend _ doing this _ very cool thing _ all on her own. 

The fire faded out and Copernica stood there, still thinking. Armilly made a little disappointed noise and asked why she stopped. “It was making my chest feel tingly and I didn’t like it,” she said. It was fading now that she had stopped.

“Are you tired?” she asked. 

“No, I’m not tired,” Copernica said as she put her hands on her hips, sounding a bit offended at such an insinuation. She crouched over the book once again. “Now I can try a different element.”

“Ice?”

“I did ice last time, I wanna try something new first!” 

The air around Copernica crackled and she made some bolts of lightning appear from her hand. She couldn’t make them stick around for very long, unlike the fire. She aimed her palm downwards and giggled as the electricity jumped from her hand to the ground. It tickled.

Armilly froze as if Copernica had used ice as soon as the air started crackling. “I don’t like that one,” she said. Too similar to thunderstorms, and she had had plenty of experience with those.

Copernica mentally kicked herself for not remembering that Armilly was afraid of thunderstorms. “It’s okay, it’s not as strong as a big storm,” she said. She tried to reach out and put a reassuring hand on Armilly’s shoulder, only for an arc to jump across the gap.

“OW!” Armilly yelped, jumping away with a betrayed expression. “You shocked me!”

“Sorry,” Copernica said as she tried to shake off and stamp away the residual static. “I didn’t know it stuck around like that.” 

Armilly’s hurt expression did not fade from the apology. She scooted backward until she bumped into a tree and almost jumped out of her chassis. She eyed the tree suspiciously as though it was going to get zapped at any moment now despite there not being a cloud in the sky.

“Okay, no more storm magic,” Copernica said. “That leaves ice…”

It came to her easily enough: fire felt a bit easier, but she could sustain an ice spell, unlike a storm spell. It didn’t feel different from the first time she cast an ice spell. It felt good enough for her to get a grip on and didn’t scare Armilly, so it wasn’t long before she was playing around with the magic as she had with fire.

The small aches in her arms, which she had ignored at first, suddenly became much stronger. Her chest felt odd again, too--it felt sore this time as opposed to what she felt from the fire.

Then, the wisps of ice magic paused in their dances and shot into her middle with no further warning. Copernica dropped to the ground with a sharp cry.

Armilly jumped to her feet. “Coco?!”

She curled up, hugging herself and shivering hard even though it was warm outside. The icy feeling piercing her belly was miserable enough, but now she could feel the chill creeping through all of her pipes like shards of ice.

Armilly ran off to find Copernica’s parents, looking back over her shoulder at her friend frequently. She rammed right into Copernica’s father as a result. He staggered, she bounced off him and landed on her bottom.

“What happened? I heard Copernica scream.” Based on the look on Armilly’s face, he guessed the scream was something more serious than part of a game.

“She was doing magic and ice stuff when the ice stuff suddenly went _ whoosh _,” Armilly said, gesturing towards herself to illustrate the last part. She got up and started running back to where Copernica was before he could ask her to elaborate better.

It wasn’t difficult to piece the picture together once he got there, though. Spellbook open to a page about ice, and a small child that enthuses about magic and alchemy curled up on the ground, shaking like a leaf. 

“Oh…” he said softly as he reached down to pick her up. “Had a bit of an accident, hm?”

She curled into herself further. Not only was she in pain, she knew she wasn’t supposed to be trying to cast until she had her own book...she was probably in trouble now. “Papa, I think I’m dying,” she whimpered. 

As her father scooped her up into his arms, he noticed that her middle was cold. Really cold. “You probably froze your boiler, you won’t die,” he said. “Certainly not in this weather. Let’s get you warmed up… Armilly, carry my book for me?” 

With a quiet nod, she picked up the book and tagged along behind him.

* * *

“Here, take this too, you probably snuffed your furnace some.”

Copernica took the hot pack and hugged it close while her father fixed the blanket cocoon she was situated in. It still wasn’t enough to stop her from shivering, but it was better than nothing, she supposed.

“Can I help?” Armilly asked from her spot on the floor. Why she had chosen to sit on the floor as opposed to a seat on the couch like Copernica was beyond everybody. “My furnace is okay, I can be a hot pack.”

He shook his head. “Not with how cold Copernica is right now. Your furnace wouldn’t keep up and you’d get really cold, too.”

“But I wanna help.” Armilly crossed her arms and pouted. She knew full well that being too cold was no fun, even if she hadn't ever reached the point of literal ice forming inside her.

“You can warm up this blanket with your own heat,” he said as he handed the extra blanket over to her. “That way it’s already warm when she gets it.” That was good enough for Armilly; she took the blanket and hugged it to her middle. It was warm enough in the room that she didn’t want to wrap herself in it. 

“I’m going to get Copernica something warm to drink, holler if anything happens.” And then Copernica’s father left the room.

The ice-in-her-pipes feeling had faded thankfully, but Copernica was still chilled to her core and probably would be until the ice in her boiler melted. That alone was a unique sensation that she could have happily lived her life without experiencing: ice took up more volume than the same mass of water did. She had read such a fact and heard her parents talk about it but she didn’t need it demonstrated _ in her own body _.

“I’m cold,” she said, pulling the blanket and the hot pack closer to her belly. It was a blatantly obvious fact but one she felt needed to be stated again.

“Do you want my blanket?” Armilly asked.

“Mmhmm...”

Armilly unfolded the blanket and tossed it over Copernica such that it covered up the opening left by the blanket beneath it. The extra layer _did_ feel warmer since Armilly had had it. She gave a soft "thank you" and nestled in.

A pause. “Ice cream?” Armilly asked with a tiny smile.

“Nooo!” 

“Sorry,” Armilly said through giggles. They were very contagious giggles, though, and soon Copernica was infected with them too.

She was still giggling a little when her father returned with tea. It was nice and warm and Copernica drank the little spill-proof cup down quicker than she normally would. 

...and a moment later, she heard a _crack!_ come from inside her body that made her and Armilly jump. “Papa, I’m dying!” she yelped.

“You’re not dying,” he said as he patted her head, “that was probably the ice in you cracking from the tea hitting it.” He felt her side. “ I think your furnace is picking back up, too.”

“I still don’t feel very good,” she said. Then she sneezed and quietly shuddered. There was still condensation in her vents, it seemed.

“Well, you did freeze yourself. It’d take a while for anybody to get over that.”

“Am I in trouble?” Copernica asked in a small voice. This whole incident wouldn’t have happened if she hadn’t tried something she couldn’t do yet.

“I think that this alone is enough of a lesson,” her father said with a sigh. “No more playing with my book, okay? Especially when I’m not around.”

“Okay...” A pause while she pulled the blanket up to her cheeks. “I just wanted to learn how to cast spells...”

“I know you do, but you’re still too little. Your mind isn’t developed enough to control spells properly, and things like this can happen.”

Armilly piped up. “She was doing really good before that happened.”

“Really?” he asked, his expression brightening. Even with all that had happened, Copernica’s father was an alchemist at heart and thrilled his daughter was trying to follow in his footsteps. “I want to hear about this…”

**Author's Note:**

> Come yell at me on my Tumblr or something: [sbuggbot.tumblr.com](sbuggbot.tumblr.com)


End file.
